Andrea Dawkins MP | Greens’ Education spokesperson
On Sunday, Premier Will Hodgman claimed the recent Australian Education Union report highlighting that there are less base grade teachers now than before this government was elected was “Fake News”.
The Premier, and the Minister for Education have continued to mislead with the claim teacher numbers have increased.
The reality is that principals and special skills teachers have increased, but base grade teachers have decreased. This was freely acknowledged in the AEU report using figures pulled straight from the pages of the Department of Education’s annual reports.
The Premier and Minister for Education, however, are deliberately using principal and advanced skills teachers to suggest classroom teacher numbers have increased.
This use of Trump tactics is concerning. Will Hodgman is not afraid to boldly make misleading claims, and then have the audacity to call accurate and factual presentation of his own government's data “fake news”.
This is disgraceful, disrespectful behaviour that has no place in Tasmanian politics.
The Premier must apologise for treating teachers, and the public with such contempt. He should also commit to reconsidering his tactics coming up to the state election.